


Communing With The Dead

by miss_grey



Series: What We Do In The Dark [42]
Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, SCRYING, Supernatural AU - Freeform, Witchcraft, witch gene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:48:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21541723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_grey/pseuds/miss_grey
Summary: "There are limits to what a human can do...even one as powerful as you."
Relationships: Babe Heffron/Eugene Roe, Renee LeMaire & Eugene Roe
Series: What We Do In The Dark [42]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1366063
Comments: 10
Kudos: 56





	Communing With The Dead

Her pale feet pressed into the mud, the cold earth squishing between her toes, flecks of grass and swamp muck clinging to her legs and the ragged hem of her skirt. Crickets chirped and mosquitos buzzed: in the shallow swamp waters, living things crawled and slithered. The sun had just dipped below the tree line and fireflies flickered against the smear of purple and orange dusk, criss-crossed by shadowed trunks and tangled branches. Brambles caught at her as she made her way, step by step, along a rise of jutting land, dark green waters on either side, teeming with hungry life. The ward hummed, low in her soul. It almost made her feel alive.

A fish slapped the water, or maybe a gator, and she turned, feet sinking deeper. The air shifted, grew thick and heavy, and suddenly still. _Renee._ She turned, gazing over her shoulder, but she was alone. A frog croaked. _Renee._ She frowned and pressed her hands to her head—where…?

_RENEE._

She gasped, inhaling no breath, and fell to her knees, the pale shadow of flesh sliding in the muck, her palms bracing her at the water’s edge. Her chest heaved and she gazed down into the deep, black, fathomless depths…and Eugene gazed back out at her, from a dark room somewhere else, face pale but determined, backlit by candles.

_“Renee,”_ he murmured, brows pinched together in a mix of worry and concentration. “Can you hear me?” His lips pursed, then flattened, almost as if in pain. “I need you.”

“Eugene,” Renee gasped, stretching her energy to try to reach him, “I’m here. I can feel you. Where are you?”

“Far away. I need yo’ help.”

“What is it?”

Eugene grimaced. “I need to learn how ta kill a demon.”

A chill passed through her and she flickered, the thick, humid air pulsing around her. “It found you.”

His eyes were dark, flat. _Hiding from her._ “It did. It _took_ Edward.”

Renee dug her fingers into the mud, curling them tightly. “ _Mon Dieu_. What does it want?”

“Me,” Eugene whispered, voice hitching. Her throat and chest tightened, her heart raced, and she could hear her pulse thick in her ears—it was amazing what the spirit remembered, even after the body had gone. She felt as if she were dying all over again. Eugene cleared his throat, the lines around his eyes relaxing. “It wants me.”

“ _No_.” Renee shook her head, tendrils of blonde hair clinging to the side of her face. “ _No. It cannot have you._ ”

“If I don’t do what it wants, it said it’ll kill Edward.”

“Eugene, you cannot do this thing. You _know_ that you cannot. Under no circumstances can this demon get its hands on you. It will kill you.”

Eugene grimaced, averting his eyes just slightly. “That’s not what it wants.”

The swamp had grown cold. So cold. The light had gone out of the sky. “That is worse, Eugene. _You cannot_. Promise me.”

But he didn’t.

* * *

The candles shivered around him as he clenched his hands and forced himself to take a deep, calming breath. Renee’s desperation curled forth from the depths of a shallow bowl, perched in the center of the library’s table. Gene shook his head, holding the surge of emotions at bay. “I can’t do that, Renee. You know that.” He forced his hands to open—his nails had begun to cut crescents into his palms. “I need ta get him back. No matter what.”

Her pale eyes, filled with an inexpressible melancholy, stared back at him. Her chin trembled. “You are not the boy you once were, Eugene. It is too dangerous.”

“I can’t think of any other way.”

“The demon must not get its hands on you. It would be a catastrophe.” Renee shook her head, and her blonde hair swished around her pale cheeks. “A sin too great to bear. You know this, Eugene.” She bit at her lip. “Promise me you won’t do this. You will not give the demon what it wants.”

“I need ta know how to fight it.” Gene insisted. He could feel the fire burn in his belly, the way it had since he’d woken that morning, filled with a new determination to do whatever it took. “To kill it.”

“You cannot kill a demon.”

“I hafta.” Gene swallowed thickly, desperation and grief swamping him. “ _He was gonna come back with me, Renee_. To stay. He… _wants_ me. _I love him_.” His heart squeezed in his chest and the tears rose in his throat.

* * *

Renee closed her eyes, Eugene’s sorrow too much to bear for a moment. It choked her, dragging her deeper into the muck so that she almost wanted it to swallow her. She shook her head sadly. “There are limits to what a human can do, even one as powerful as you.”

“I have to try.” In his words, she heard the echo of the boy he had been.

“Your strength has always been your capacity to love, Eugene. Please do not let this quest destroy you. Please do not let this demon twist you.”

“I don’t know what to do, Renee. I’m afraid. And I’m alone.”

Renee shook her head. “ _You’re not_. I know you are hurt and you are angry, but you are _not_ alone.” The memory of tears trailed down her cheeks. “I can feel your pain and your rage, but those things are not _you._ You are not a killer, Eugene. You are a _healer._ ”

“Renee. Please help me. _Please._ It hurts so bad.”

“I will help you, Eugene. I will help you. I promise.” The trees rustled, the frogs and the crickets quieted, and the Bayou grew still. “Pray with me.”

* * *

The sorrow twisted in his heart, tight, painful, but then Renee began to murmur the words of St. Francis’ prayer and Gene followed her, twining their voices together in a low plea:

_“Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace;_  
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;   
Where there is injury, pardon;   
Where there is doubt, faith;   
Where there is despair, hope;   
Where there is darkness, light;   
And where there is sadness, joy.”

* * *

Her voice was steady, her shape growing more solid with the pronouncement of each word. Eugene’s eyes were filled with pain, but there was something else there, as well. A strength that she’d nurtured and loved through the years. His voice hitched, raw with feeling, but she soothed him and continued:

  
_“Grant that I may not so much seek_  
To be consoled as to console;   
To be understood, as to understand;   
To be loved, as to love;   
For it is in giving that we receive,   
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned….”

She closed her eyes, just for a moment, and she gathered herself. When she opened them, she saw the gleam of tears welling in Eugene’s eyes. She sighed, and lifted a hand from the mud. She set it, gently, on the water’s surface, and said, “Eugene, _mon chéri_ …touch your hand to mine, now, and I’ll give you whatever knowledge I have.”

* * *

Drowning in sorrow and pain and hope and love and the absolute weight of faith, Gene dipped his hand into the water and closed his eyes.

,

**Author's Note:**

> Remember, dear readers, comments are love! Please let me know what you thought of the chapter. Also, feel free to come say hi on tumblr. I'm @realhunterswearplaid.


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